


Always Listen to Your Guide

by Bluewolf458



Category: The Sentinel
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-22
Updated: 2013-10-22
Packaged: 2017-12-30 04:26:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 526
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1014067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluewolf458/pseuds/Bluewolf458
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jim and Blair and a day at the seaside</p>
            </blockquote>





	Always Listen to Your Guide

"Jim," Blair said for what seemed to be the hundredth time in the past few minutes. "You can't possibly go surfing here." Unusually for him, Blair was beginning to get angry. "You saw the notice. This beach is designated as hazardous. For any one of a dozen reasons, you should be paying attention to the signs, obeying them - "Blair 

"Chief, if there was any pollution here, I'd know," Jim replied impatiently. "All I can smell is fresh sea air - "

"It says 'chemical hazard'," Blair argued. "Even your senses can't necessarily detect something like a chemical in the water without tasting it - and you don't want to try tasting a chemical that's designated a hazard. You know you could react adversely to it once you came into contact with it. Think of the way you react to things like cold medicine. Would you really want to have that kind of reaction if you were three or four hundred yards away from land, with breakers surging in?"

"It's a perfect day for surfing - " Jim protested.

"Yes, and if you have a bad reaction? It'd ruin the vacation for both of us. You'd be far wiser to give this beach a miss, and try to find one that hasn't been officially closed as being dangerous. Then you could enjoy yourself in perfect safety, and I could sit and watch you without worrying whether I had to rush into the water and drag you out of it!" Blair drew a deep, steadying breath. "Look, I have my laptop in the truck. Let me check the various beaches around here for a clean one."

Jim sighed, knowing that - as always - he had lost the argument.

***

Blair found a clean beach a few miles further south and, resigned to keeping his guide happy, Jim drove to it. It turned out that the waves there were even better than the ones at the prevous beach, and Jim plunged happily into an afternoon of surfing. Blair relaxed as he watched. He could swim well, but had never been drawn to surfing. But he was content that Jim was enjoying riding the waves.

***

"Jim," Blair said next morning as he studied the newspaper, his breakfast forgotten.

The note in Blair's voice made Jim look searchingly at him, fork halfway to his mouth. "Yes?"

"That beach yesterday morning... "

"Yes?"

"There's a report here - someone who ignored the notice and went swimming there yesterday... "

"Yes?"

"In hospital with serious skin lesions, and the guy who went it and hauled him out is being treated as well, though he's not as bad because his exposure to it was less. Apparently it was some sort of caustic chemical that was present in the water - the authorities thought that the 'chemical hazard' signs would be enough to keep people out of the water. They should have been more specific."

Jim looked at him for a moment, then said quietly, "I keep realizing just how lucky I am, having you looking out for me. Thanks, Chief."

Blair grinned. "That's what a guide is for. To look out for his sentinel."

Jim grinned back, and returned his attention to his scrambled eggs.


End file.
